Parenting - blessings abound!

We adopted 3 children, a set of siblings, on June 10, 2014. I haven't posted in quite some time! I look back and see that I haven't posted since our home study was approved! I guess meeting our children, learning to parent, adopting them, and continuing to learn to parent has kept me busy! Life has taken many twists and turns, but I think this will be a fantastic place for me to share more about our adoption journey and parenting our children! Thanks for reading and I'll start with how we met our children tomorrow!

Our adoption home study was approved!

My husband, Chad, and I have been taking classes, preparing tons of paperwork, meeting with caseworkers and more for about 10-11 months. We are very happy to announce that we found out two weeks ago that our home study was approved! The plan, that God laid on our hearts last August, is to adopt a sibling group so they can have the chance to stay together. We haven't shared much to this point because we were unsure how long this part of the process would take. Now, we work with others to find the children we will be blessed enough to parent! We are thankful to know that before The Lord created the heavens and the earth, He knew which children would be in our home for us to love! We appreciate any prayers as we continue through this process!

Pregnancy Test Results

I want to thank you all for your prayers as we've walked down this road of infertility. Unfortunately, I just heard from my doctor's office and the results of my pregnancy test are negative. I trust in the Lord's will for our lives, but my heart feels like it is breaking. I will post more when I feel up to it.

The Dreaded Two Week Wait

The two week wait to find out whether you are pregnant or not is hard for everyone, I’m sure. I think that the two week wait for anyone who has gone through IVF can tell you that the two week wait post-IVF is agonizing. I’ve spent months and months praying through that two week wait, but when you know that healthy embryos were transferred, it can be even harder to wait patiently. You try to stay busy and not think about it every second of every minute of every hour of every day. However, that is easier said than done. We have to wait until this Friday to find out whether this round of IVF was successful and whether a miracle has occurred and we will be given the opportunity to become biological parents. Our trust is in the Lord.

Embryo Transfer

Wanted to update everyone on our status. On Saturday, November 30th, we had 3 embryos transferred. We are praying that a true miracle occurs, and that we are able to have a biological child in our arms in 2014. We have seen God be so incredibly faithful throughout our marriage and our lives. We are thankful for all that God has provided for us!

To ICSI or not to ICSI?

Do we do ICSI or not? That is the question Chad and I wrestled with last night and this morning. As I was praying this morning, I really felt like God was telling me to trust Him. At the beginning of this year, 2013, our pastor asked us to choose a word for the year. The word I chose was trust, and it has been impactful countless times. I've learned a lot about trust over the past year, and really felt like God has been teaching me. So, we decided that we would tell the doctor that we were choosing not to do ICSI.

I asked the doctor what his thoughts were on whether we should do ICSI or not (before telling him the conclusion Chad and I came to). We talked about our past cycles of IVF, and the doctor said he would double check my chart.  He said he thought we did not need to do ICSI. That was encouraging, especially since we already had come to the conclusion that we were not going to do ICSI. 

I have all of my instructions for the coming days and weeks. My egg retrieval is tomorrow morning. I have to be there at 9 a.m., and the retrieval should happen at 10 a.m. They did a blood draw today to make sure that the trigger shot I took last night was working, and the nurse called and said that everything looks good for tomorrow morning!

We appreciate any prayers!

Trigger Shot - Tonight!

I just heard from my doctor that I will be taking my trigger shot tonight at 10 p.m. That means that I'll have to be at my doctor's office at 9 a.m. on Wednesday for the egg retrieval. My estrogen and progesterone continue to be right where they need to be.

I have an appointment tomorrow morning to go over everything I will need to know before Wednesday. We have to make the decision, along with the doctors, on whether or not we will do ICSI. That is where they take an individual sperm and inject it into the egg. If they don't do ICSI, then they let the sperm fertilize the egg on their own. We've had good fertilization in the past, but there's always a possibility that without ICSI, none could fertilize. However, at the same time, ICSI is another form of manipulation between the eggs and sperm. So, please pray for wisdom as we make this choice by tomorrow morning.

Thanks, too, for the continued prayers. We continue to pray for a miracle! 

The nurse seems very upbeat about how things have progressed this cycle. 

One bit of good news about taking the trigger shot tonight is that I will not have any shots or needles anywhere in my skin for about 36 hours! I'll go all day tomorrow without a blood draw, shot or IV. Also, it will be the first time in several weeks that I haven't had to get up for a 6:30 a.m. shot. I'm feeling very excited about that! 

We are trusting that the Lord is holding each of these moments in His hands. We know that He is in control, and we are so thankful that He loves us. Whether this cycle of IVF ends in us having a biological child or not, we are in awe of all that He has done for us. We are thankful that He has allowed us to grow, as individuals and as a couple, over the last 10 years. I can see the many ways God has been there for us, and am in complete awe of the fact that He loves me enough to care about every detail.